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Naomi Bulka wrote:
>On October 2, I got two messages from TECHWR about magazine
>subscriptions. One came from patricia -dot- loring -at- ES -dot- CO -dot- nz and the address
>she recommended for more info was sallyeng -at- ixc -dot- net -dot- Another note, with
>the same information, came from joanie -dot- chen -at- CARIBE -dot- net and the
>address she provided was sanjeev2 -at- grfn -dot- org -dot-
>Last week, I tried sending email to one location and when that
>note was returned as undeliverable, I tried the second. Same result.
>I then tried to email those who originally put the information on
>the TECHWR list. Those notes have come back as undeliverable as well.
>Has anyone on the list successfully contacted either of the above
>addresses and can you tell me what I may have done wrong?
Welcome to the growing community of the SPAMmed.
The reason the contact addresses bounced is that they didn't exist. The
poster made them up. I have a mournful message archived somewhere from the
mail administrator at ixc.net. He complains about that situation, and
about the thousands of protest messages he received (in less than 6 hours)
from folks who were assaulted by the first of these random fictitious
posts. It nearly shut down his system.
The reason the reply-to addresses bounced is that they, too, were
fictitious. There are apparently software applications that allow one to
forge email header information. Some of the forged addresses are quite
clever. Others are more pedestrian --- another version of this same
magazine hoax was apparently sent by someone called bossy -at- beef -dot- cow -dot- net -dot-
Bottom line:
(1) things that look too good to be true usually are.
(2) ignore pseudo-personal endorsement messages that
are cc:'d to random newsgroups and listservs.
(3) buy your magazines from reputable distributors <grin>.
Better luck next time.
@Kat_____ Kat Nagel
MasterWork Consulting Services Rochester, NY
LIFE1 (techwriting/docdesign) katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net
LIFE2 (vocal chamber music) PlaynSong -at- aol -dot- com
